February 25, 2005
empty MTR 3
I took these pics on LNY as usually the trains are way too crowded at any time to
take pics. As you can see, the MTR is a very efficient and clean (and affordable) mass transit system.
Man Mo temple, HK isle 3
This is one of the oldest temples on HK isle. Man is the Taoist god for literature and Mo is the Taoist god for martial arts. Honouring the sword and pen, of course I had to go see it and pay my respects, first temple visit for me in the Lunar New Year.
LegCo
Legislative Counsel building of HK, located in Central, HK isle
Reclaimation Street, Yau Ma Tei 5
keep in mind this is during LNY so the streets are empty of people and cartons of fruit and veggies. Parts of northern HK isle and southern Kowloon (as well as other parts) are 'reclaimed land' meaning that landfill was used to extend the land into the water.
which of these buildings is not like the other
yes, HK also is dealing with gentrification :-(
Langham mall
The tallest buildings other than this mall in this area are only like 5 stories high.
I still need to take a pic of the bus ads this mall has placed which are very much women objectifying, but of course the ad is drawn anime style so I guess that means it is okay since it is only a cartoon.
of course there is a langham hotel for the rich gweilo to stay
it adjoins the big mall of course.
Little Sheep
a restaurant which is located across the street from the Langham hotel and mall in gentrified Mong Kok. I found it amusing and thought my friend Fozzie would especially appreciate the irony in the name, heh.
temple on wheels
I saw this on Prince Edward Street (in Mong Kok) around LNY time and it just struck me as funny.
bad pic of Lion dance
I was in my apartment and heard some drums. I headed down to investigate. Sure enough, a Lion dance was happening in Yau Ma Tei, third day of LNY. I took some video that hopefully will get uploaded soon. There were lots of lion dances within the 2 week period HK celebrates LNY. I miss hearing the drumming in the streets.
One cool thing I observed was how young and old stopped and watched the Lion dances as they passed with a big smile. I thought it was cool because there were many occasions I saw this dance performed over the past 2 weeks and to see these dances bring so much joy to people, even after they'd probably seen these dances a thousand times.
Mong Kok street market
this was during the first week of LNY so there were less people (imagine that) and more tourists
hot air balloon
this is the balloon I went up in, hopefully I can upload the video from that soon.
close up of old building
This is on Portland Street, Yau Ma Tei, a few blocks from where I live.
yellow alert
I found this illuminated sign while walking by a hospital in Yau Ma Tei. I guess this kind of alert was put into effect after SARS. There were many of these signs around and inside the hospital.
stairs in Ho Man Tin, Kowloon
imagine having to go up 4 flights of these stairs just to get to the housing project you live in?
HK motto
I saw this on a little girl's jacket while in HK isle. What a great message to send, ugh.
HK museum of Correctional Services 27
I took the Stanely bus to the last stop and found this museum nearby. It was free so I went in and found it interesting. I think my favourite section was the one about the Vietnamese boat people refugees. The area where I live in HK had one of the refugee centers so it was cool for me to see older pics of my block. I also loved the homemade contraband the HK police found among the refugees.
February 17, 2005
I know, I suck
yeah, I promised lots of updates and then didn't do anything. But I've had an eventful 2 weeks. I had a friend staying with me for a week which was great. I enjoyed her company a lot. Hopefully, I can visit her in Paris before she heads back on her tour of the world (traveling for 5 years now with only 2 brief stops back at home). She's very inspiring and wise.
Then I got sad news that a friend of mine from the states died. So yeah, I've been dealing with that :-(
The weirdest thing abotu Lunar New Year was how Hong Kong nearly stopped for a whole week- seriously, shops were closed, people stayed in for the first 3 days. It was great, I loved how serene and quiet Kowloon was for a change.
After that, still there were lots of shops closed so not as many people out. Lots and lots of lion and dragon dances in the streets which was cool. I'd love to live somewhere there were drummers on the street all the time. It really made my walking much more enjoyable. The lions and dragon dancers go to all the shop keepers and collect "lai see" which are those red packets of money in exchange for good luck. Where I'm from, that's called extortion ;-)
Anyway, I do have some LNY pics to put up but not as many as I expected. I actually took a lot of pretty pics of Stanely Pennisula which is part of southern HK isle. And next week there will be lantern carnivals which signal the offical end of LNY celebrations. Also, the lantern carnival on the first full moon is like a Chinese Valentines Day.
I'm not sure when I'll get around to posting pics as I may be back to the states in as little as 2 weeks. Pics will def get posted at some point, just a matter of priorities right now. I need to do as much HK stuff as I can before I go :-)
February 08, 2005
Kung hei fat choi
and sun nie fie lau :-) I posted these Lunar New Year/Spring Festival pics super quick so perhaps you all can feel like you are in HK while this great holiday goes on :-)
I also finished uploading all my Guilin, China pics. I think I posted over 100 pics this week so if you want to make sure you see them all, just click on the Feb archive link.
my cut flowers
These are the flowers I picked up at the market- only about 6 USD for all of them. That's cheap even by HK standards- usually one stemful of lilies costs like $8 USD.
The open lily flowers are the largest I've seen- practically the size of my face and are quite fragrant.
Here is something I read in a HK newspaper about Lunar New Year traditions:
taboos concerning LNY:
-clear all debts by Lunar New Year. Don't lend on the big day or you'll continue to do so all year.
-don't talk about the previous year: a New Year is a new beginning- so don't look back
-Don't eat fresh bean curd or tofu, white symbolizes death and ill fortune
-The words of the first person you meet will determine your luck for the rest of that year.
-Don't greet anyone in his or her bedroom, it's unlucky
-Don't use knives or scissors in New Year's Day- it's bad luck.
-no cleaning (as you can wash away good luck) or crying (cause tradtion says you will cry all year) on Lunar New Year.
home decorating tips:
- happy, poetic couplets with black or gold ink on red paper to go on walls.
- fresh flowers, such as pussy willow, azalea, peony, water lily or narcissus, as a symbol or revival and growth
-oranges and tangerines with leaves, which represent joy. The leaves symbolize a secure relationship: an extra leaf means newlyweds will have many children
-candy tray with 8 varieties of dried fruit: peanuts for longevity, candied melon for wellbeing, lychee nuts for a good family relationship, kumquats for wealth, coconut for togetherness, red melon seeds for bliss and honesty, longans for many good sons, lotus seed for lots of children.
seeds and peanuts
I was so proud of myself this evening that I finally could tell the shop keeper in Cantonese how much of these I wanted :-) The 2 bags of red seeds are 2 different kinds, they taste different and had different prices but I don't know what they are seeds from, heh. I still don't recognize too many characters.
my pile of tangerines
I can't buy a tree as I doubt I'll be here for more than several more months.
various LNY stuff
The big yellow fruit is a pomelo which is a cross between an orange and grapefruit. My first time tasting one was in Seattle this fall with my good friend, B :-) I am looking forward to trying it again, this time it is a local fruit and in season. The other things are fried dough balls, turnip cake and some other cake. I'll try them all out tomorrow when my friend gets here.
biggest tangerines I've ever seen
like the size of grapefruits and they come from Taiwan
my front door
and yeah, like a dumbass, I put something out on my door that says something I have no clue how to read. I hope it wishes my neighbours good luck and fortune and keeps away any bad monsters :-) I couldn't resist though, I really wanted some decoration on my door and this one I saw was super cute :-)
it's not everyday you see a hot air balloon
so I went to go to the market to buy some fresh tofu. I got sidetracked into visiting Kowloon Park (photos follow). Then I wound up in Tsim Sha Tsoi but there weren't any cool LNY decorations about so I headed back to the market. Then in the distance (this pic) I see a hot air balloon- wtf? Since it was kind of sort on my way, I head over to check it out, I had to. It seems this company is selling tickets to take a tethered, 120 feet, hot air balloon experience for about $20 USD. Though I'd prefer a higher, untethered ride I've never been in a hot air balloon at all and I love being up in the air so I got a ticket. I was supposed to go up tonight but they called me to say the rides were cancelled tonight due to the winds. So, I'll have to pick another night this week to go.
nice service road wall
I live close to this service road and walking along it is at least nice looking as I breathe in tons of exhaust.
bauhina
this is a type of orchid that is native to HK and is the official flower (and on HK's flag and coins too)
I just can't get over seeing blooming trees in early Feb :-)
real friends don't offer drugs?
I wish I could have gotten a better shot of this funny public service banner.
tangerine trees
I could get over how many tangerine and peach trees I saw for sale. And supposedly, this year there were even less imported due to the red ant scare in the New Territories. This vendor was on Public Market Square, near Temple Street.
February 07, 2005
street rice vendor
this lady, down the street from the hostel, was selling cups full of dry rice from a wheeled cart.
my back after cupping
cool looking, eh? My French buddy I met at the hostel and I went for professional massages- only 20 yuan for one hour- that's like $3.00 USD. They also offered one hour foot baths and massages for 20 yuan and this cupping technique for only 40 yuan.
The cupping felt weird- they took about 22 glass rounded cups (like a ball) and suctioned them onto my back. The cups were warmed. It felt a little stingy and the glass was heavy but overall, I enjoyed it. And my back afterwards had those cool marks you see in the pic but there was no tenderness or bruising at all. I still have some of these marks, 2 weeks later but they are very faded.
February 06, 2005
hostel room
3 bunk beds in total. The room was relatively warm and comfortable for only $3.80 USD a night.
more of the hostel bathroom
As you'll notice there is no bathtub nor shower curtain. The door had a lock so we had privacy but still it felt weird. And it also made the floor feel yucky whenever we went later in the day to use the toilet or sink since it was still all wet from someone taking a shower.
In HK, it seems that most places have a western style toilet but the showers are still similar to this style. My bathroom is not like this and I've got a bathtub and shower curtain.
squatting toilet close up
Squatting toilets are the norm in China (and most of Japan at least 3 years ago and probably most other Asian countries). I don't mind squatting though I do feel like a dog, haha. But it is tricky to make sure you clothes are out of the way when urinating. And doing #2, okay I'll admit that was strange. I think I had a bowel movement every other day instead of 1 or 2 a day. And you really had to try to aim for the hole because the water pressure was so low, there was no way it would wash away any #2 traces and of course you don't want to leave a mess for the next person nor do you want to clean it yourself. This Chinese trip, I was 100% on target :-)
hostel bathroom
This is the bathroom at the hostel and it looks much nicer than most Chinese bathrooms I've been in.
And the Yangshuo photos that follow... yeah I know I reused numbers but that doesn't matter for my record keeping. Thank goodness for the rainy weather or I am sure I'd have twice as many pics to upload from that Guangxi trip ;-)
February 04, 2005
the local mini semi long distance bus
I write about this odd experience in another entry.
farm on the way to Yangshuo
Being a lifelong city dweller, I am quite excited by seeing farmland. And between Guilin and Yangshuo there are lots of farms. I'm not sure if this pic is one of the rice fields I saw, as when upload pics I only see a thumbnail. But I did see a few of those fields in person which made me really happy as I'd only see rice fields on video and pics before. Cultivating rice is *extremely* work intensive so consider that the next time you eat rice and want to waste some of the grain left on your plate. Someday, I'd like to experience life on the rice fields.
Cantonese people are know to eat "anything that has 4 legs but is not a table, anything that flies but is not an airplane, anything that is in water but is not a boat." In HK, you can find a wide variety of meat dishes... some of the more exotic (to me) I've had the opportunity to try is cow stomach and fish intestines.
I've also recognized the characters for pig lungs on a menu but didn't have the nerve to try it. Well, actually I do have the nerve to try it, my fear is not enjoying it and wasting food. I'd much rather have someone I know order it and try some of theirs. I did enjoy the taste and texture of cow stomach, more so than ground beef. And fish intestines had a weird taste and texture to me, but I enjoyed it with soy sauce. I don't feel as bad eating an animal when all parts of it are used. Buying meat in the states bothers me as I know many parts of the animal are wasted (as well as other reasons but this is not that kind of post so I won't go into it). I guess the British influence had an impact on HK cuisine because you never find dog meat on a menu here. China is a whole other story...
I don't have a problem eating dog meat as I don't have a problem eating any other animal like cow, duck, pig, fish. Generally, I don't like to eat meat but not for any moral reasons (exception being the industries involved but I am still thinking about that). Anyway, I didn't see any 'dog meat' in English signs in Guilin or Yangshuo and I couldn't bring myself to ask for it in Cantonese. I ate in sidestreet vendor stalls and in most cases, could not place what kind of meat I was eating, considering the taste and the bones. And my last day in Guilin, I saw at one of the vendors, a roasted animal which looked like a medium iszed dog, so I suspect at some point I did eat dog meat. My French traveler friend who I met in Guilin was appallled when she saw it. She'd been eating ramen noodles while in China because she didn't trust the food. If you're a vegetarian, it's close to impossible to eat in Guilin or Yangshou and I suspect most of China.
I once ordered only rice and veggies from a street side stand and found bits of meat in the rice. When you consider less than 10% of the land in China is farmable and they have over 1.3 billion people to feed, it is reasonable that they'd include meat in their diet, esp animals that Westerners feel are "pets".
As I said, I am unsure if I ate dog meat or not but I will say that I didn't care much for the meat I could not identify I ate there. It wasn't bad but it was the kind of thing, like most red meat or poultry I have had, I could take or leave.
I did like Guangxi cooking style as they used lots of tomatoes, green pepper, cabbage and chili peppers in their cooking. I find HK food to be very oily and bland (and scarce on veggies ) but I do like how they use lots of garlic and ginger.
on the road to Yangshuo
Pumelos ( a fruit that is a cross between oranges and grapefruit but are much larger) are in season here. There were tons of roadside vendors where you can buy some.
Guilin 7
this is where the non-touristy part of Guilin is. It's funny when I researched places in S China to visit, I chose Guilin not only for it's natural scenery but also for it's status as a tourist city. The directions I got from the hostel said it was 500 meters from the bus station but leave it to me to exit the bus station from the other end. So I found myself walking around in confusion and lots of rain- run down buildings, broken sidewalks, no pinyin (romanized Chinese) and I was like this is considered a tourist area? I cursed the hostel for not giving me the Chinese characters for the street I was meant to be on.
And yeah, while I eventually discovered tourist area in China means tourist area for Chinese people, still after going 500 meters and not finding the hostel, I made my way back to the bus station and found the other exit. And there, I see pinyin, nice sidewalks and lots of lights and hotels. I soon found my way to the hostel.
As an aside, Guilin runs on hydroelectricity. Since it was still considered dry season, we were admonished to conserve electricity in the hostel. It was odd to go into shops that had no lights on during the daylight (but not sunny). Considering how brightly and excessively lit HK is, it just made me think about how some places waste so much while others must make do with the little they have. It also bothered me with how the touristy parts of Guilin lit up the night skies with neon signs while the housing projects I walked though on the other side of Guilin barely had any street lights at night to light their way home.
Guilin 4
when I first saw these countdowns at intersections, I thought what a great idea. You would know exactly how many seconds you have to cross a street. The catch is that the intersections are insane. Like 6-8 way intersections and sometimes you have the light but there are cars turning in your direction anyway. And bikes and scooters go whenever they want to.
Some busy streets in Guilin had no traffic signals. So you had to just cross sections of the street when the traffic somwhat slowed down. For the most part, cars in Guilin did yield to peds, a welcome change from HK drivers where they act like they have no regard for human life. Prices for petro are much less than they are for HK- almost half. In HK, it costs about $1.40 USD a liter.
Cars in Guilin also drive on the sidewalk at times which was a bit unnerving for me.
February 03, 2005
Guilin bus station
This bus station was not nearly as sketchy as most US/Canadian Greyhound bus stations I've been to. Neither was the one in Shenzhen, China (border city to HK) though someone did try to steal my bag from me there, in mid daylight, depsite me being vigilant.
Local buses in China are interesting. In Guilin, public local buses are free to "benefit the people". But to take a local, semi- long distance mini bus are weird- stops are arbitrary, you get pushed into the bus, and smoking is allowed. Still, it only cost me $10 yuan which is like $1.50 USD (and it cost everyone this, not just me the gweilo), to take a local mini bus 80 km and about 1.5 hours from Guilin and Yangshou.
The overnight bus to Guilin from Shenzhen took about 12 hours and was very comfortable- no smoking allowed and it had sleeper cots in the bus which were just my size so I could be comfy. It cost $210 yuan each way (like $21 USD) to go about 800 km. The bus allowed some potty stops which to my surprise were either bus depots in Guangdong (Canton) Province that had squatting toilets or we were let out into a forested area to take a leak in the wilderness, heh.
tourist part of Guilin, ROC, 4
being in these tourist parts of Guang Xi, esp Yang shuo (those pics will come later) felt like being in a movie as it was so stereotypical Chinese with the pagodas but being there it just felt fake even though it looked quite pretty.
I saw a TV show on HK TV about a guy that designs traditional Chinese towns in tourist areas so I'm thinking that my guess that this is all manufactured recently is on target. But as I said, it is still pretty to see, contemporary or not though it does lose some mystique when compared to visiting ancient Japanese castles in Japan. I wish I could elaborate further but I just felt differently when I visited historical places in Kyoto and Osaka. Damn Mao and his cultural revolution :-(
tourist part of Guilin, ROC, 3
I found tons of these "Chinese Welfare Lottery" places but the only thing I could tell is that it involved gambling and was not like the US standard lottery/jackpot system.
